uff of smoke. We passed out at the
Needles with the cheese-like castle of Hurst and its red ninepin-looking
lighthouses on our right, and a little further to the west on our right
with the high cliffs of Alum Bay striped curiously with coloured sand
and three high-pointed rocks, wading out into the sea, as if wanting to
get across to the north shore. These are the Needle rocks. We had run
the high white cliff at the west end of the island out of sight before
dark, and that, except a thin blue tint of land away to the north-east,
was the last I saw of the shores of dear old happy England. I daresay
others felt as I did, but we all had so much to do that we hadn't time
to talk about it. Dickey Snookes had been to sea already for a few
months, and of course knew a great deal more than I could--at least he
said that he did, and on the strength of it offered to tell me all about
everything. I thought I saw a twinkle in his eye, but his eyes always
are twinkling, so I did not suspect him of intending mischief. We had
some vegetables for dinner--some carrots and turnips--and he asked me if
I knew where they grew? I said in some garden, I supposed. "Of course,
young 'un," he answered. But you wouldn't suppose we had a garden up in
our foretop, where we grow all sorts of greens and other things. You
have not found your way there, I suspect. I told him that I had not,
and he said that I must go up there that very afternoon with him, and
that he would introduce me to the head-gardener, who was always up there
looking after the gooseberry bushes. I knew that this was a joke, but
still I wanted to see what he meant. I said that I was ready at once,
but he kept putting me off; and whenever he saw me going up the rigging
he always got some one to send for me or to call me, so that it was
quite late in the day before I succeeded in getting into the shrouds.
The sun had now gone down, the sky was overcast, and the sea had a
leaden gloomy look--there was a swell also, and the ship rolled so much
from side to side, that, as I looked up and saw the mastheads forming
arches in the sky, I could not help fancying that I should be sent off
when I got up there like a stone from a sling, or an ancient catapult,
right into the water. The idea made me hold on very tight, let me tell
you; yet, as it would never do to give it up, on I went with my teeth
pretty closely clenched, and my eyes fixed on the top, which seemed to
grow farther